The Island County commissioners are seeking applicants to fill three positions on the Water Resources Advisory Committee.
The positions represent District 1, South/Central Whidbey; District 2, Oak Harbor; and District 3, Camano Island. Applicants must reside within the area they seek to represent.

Before Sylvan Learning made a major financial investment into a digital-based curriculum, it set up an advisory group to test the waters and provide feedback.
One of the advisors, Kathleen Casprowitz, dove right in.
To Casprowitz, the idea of using an iPad to help facilitate teaching, testing and studying in the digital era made perfect sense.

In a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the justices ruled 8-1 that the Westboro Baptist Church and its congregation are protected under the First Amendment when they held a mocking protest at the funeral of an American soldier.

Home Depot in Oak Harbor will be hosting a Spring Installations and Summer Safety event, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., May 17.
On hand will be Home Depot installers for roofing, siding, windows, gutters and cabinet re-facing as well as representatives from PSE, Sunrooms Northwest, Greenwood HVAC and As You Wish Electric and others.

Editor,
Let me see if I got this right: the entire United States naval aviation force stops flying for a safety stand down, and the Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve rabble think it was because they were at Outlying Field Coupeville demonstrating?

The land on which Sheila Case-Smith grows tomatoes, rhubarb and other produce has been farmed in her family since 1898.
Yet, despite more than a century worth of tilling the soil, a familiar problem still continues to surface on occasion.

Editor,
I’m not going to address the rhetoric of the “anti-noise” group talking about the health and well-being of the citizens of Whidbey Island, or the laughable idea that the Navy not notifying the public of their touch-and-gos was, as Michael Monson said, “unconscionable.”

Responding to an inquiry about demolishing the Dog House Tavern by its owner, the Langley City Council approved an emergency moratorium on destruction of historic buildings Monday night.
Director of Community Planning Jeff Arango proposed the six-month ban, which was unanimously approved by the city council in a 4-0 vote May 5. Councilman Bruce Allen was absent while tending to a family matter, but the council still had its necessary supermajority for the emergency ordinance.

A college building in Oak Harbor will be jazzed up for a week with a smorgasbord of artwork, including one giant purple unicorn.
Lowell Sipes, art teacher at North Whidbey Middle School, has arranged an art show for students from kindergarten through 12th grade at Skagit Valley Community College’s Oak Hall.

Candidate filing week only garnered one surprise in local Island County elections by midday Tuesday.
Coupeville resident Wanda Grone, a Republican, filed to run for county treasurer. She is currently the chief deputy treasurer and will go up against her boss, Democrat Ana Maria Nunez, if she also runs.

A 27-year-old Clinton man got caught chatting on a phone while in the middle of burglarizing a home, and ended up tussling with the homeowner last summer, court documents state.
The burglar got away, but not before leaving behind his phone and some blood, which were used to tie the suspect to the scene.

Whidbey General Hospital will move forward with the sale of a 4.5-acre lot in Bayview.
The board of commissioners agreed in an unanimous 5-0 vote at it’s regularly scheduled 7 a.m. meeting Monday that the property was no longer compatible with the designs of the hospital, and that selling the property was the best decision.

Should raises for elected officials be a budget priority?
That’s one of the questions facing Island County commissioners as they begin the budget process for next year and decide where to invest tax dollars that are slowly accumulating as the recession fades into history.

Editor,
I have had 40 years of commercial construction experience around the West Coast of the United States and many projects I was involved in were waterfront communities revitalizing their old town areas to attract more business.